A Real Piece of Work
by ThePessimisticRainbow
Summary: Justin is having a miserable day, and he unintentionally strikes up a conversation with the optimistic, and slightly odd Dawn. What could possibly happen between the two in Rockefeller?


Christmas time was most definitely not Justin's favorite time of the year. The cold weather would make his lips chap, and because the temperature was usually below fifty, he wasn't able to take off his shirt at random times of the day without suffering from a cold for the next week.

It also wasn't very enjoyable to see everyone indirectly disagree with him on this. As he walked down the streets of New York City, just after a lengthy meeting with his modeling agent, he observed children prance around, choir kids sing Christmas carols, and working class citizens sip their hot chocolate which they bought at one of the many Starbucks outlets NYC had to offer. He absolutely _hated_ this. How dare they enjoy the Christmas atmosphere while he is left in a pile of misery and annoyance? He was already having a long day, why did these innocent civilians have to make it longer?

He seated himself on one of the benches near Rockefeller Center. An old buddy of his was supposed to meet him there, but he was no where in sight. It wasn't long before a text message popped up on Justin's phone. It simply gave a poor excuse as to why he didn't show up, which happened to be _Philadelphia_ traffic. As you probably know, Justin was not in Philadelphia, and he had no recollection of his friend ever informing him that he moved to Philadelphia. Justin's mood dropped even further.

He had at least an hour before he would have to board the subway back to his comfortable suburban life. He didn't know what else to do other than to just sit on the bench and let the freezing air blow against his skin. He wouldn't have had to deal with this tragedy if it weren't for him leaving his scarf and gloves all the way back in the subway station restroom.

He could hear the simultaneously terrified and gleeful screams of tourists as they slipped and fell in the ice rink. A few of the younger ones had tears falling down their cheeks by the time they were able to regain their footing. Justin didn't understand why people would even think of ice skating. He thought it was silly of them to risk having their bodies damaged, regardless of how unattractive the person was initially. Needless to say, he wouldn't be skating anytime soon, or at least that's what he thought at the time.

Before long, a petite girl sat down next to him. She had long, light blonde hair and pale skin. She radiated a sense of kindness and generosity, mainly coming from her warm smile and her soft sighs of joy. Perhaps Casper the Friendly Ghost had entered the world as a young girl, hmm?

Justin eyed her for a moment. At first glance, he could have sworn that she was in some way delusional. She didn't even have a coat on, yet she still had a smile plastered to her face. Did she recognize Justin, and wanted him to notice her, but was too shy to confront him? I mean, he was a world-renowned model. It was only a matter of time before he would grow his own following of adolescent girls everywhere. Justin didn't want to converse with her, but he would rather make a good impression on his fans.

"Hey," he greeted. He would have gone for something a little more smooth, but that would require too much effort on creating a good starting line. It was a miracle that he even chose to speak with her in the first place anyway.

The girl didn't acknowledge him at first. Her eyes were focused on the people strolling along the streets, as if she was gorging on their Christmas spirit. However, she snapped out of her daze, realizing that someone had spoken to her.

"Oh, hello there!" she replied cheerfully, "I'm sorry I didn't respond sooner. My mind was set somewhere else." For a girl who Justin assumed was shy, she did seem outgoing enough.

"Uh...no problem?" Justin smiled in an obviously fake way. "So...what's your favorite of my photo shoots?"

The girl blinked rapidly a few times. "I'm sorry. I don't understand."

Well shit. It looked like the girl wasn't aware of who Justin was anyway. Hmm, maybe she was a odd. "You've never heard of me?" Justin asked.

"I don't recognize you," the girl told him, "Am I supposed to?"

"Well, I _am _Justin Adman, the fabulous male model. You could at least give me some respect."

The girl's smile turned into something of confusion and irritation. "Not everyone is in-tune with pop culture these days. I for one like to stay close to nature, considering my rural upbringing...the natural world is a magnificent place."

"That's stupid." Justin rolled his eyes, "Who has the time to care about nature and all that when there's the big leagues you need to worry about? I have more important things on my plate."

The girl's facial expression changed once again, this time into a frown. "You're a blunt one. It's displayed along with arrogance and pettiness in your aura."

"...my what?"

"Oh, I have the ability to read auras. It's strange to you, isn't it?"

"I don't even know what you're talking about. What even is an "aura"? A body part?"

The girl's irritation still showed, but she just had to giggle at Justin's ignorance. "You're a bit of a piece of work...maybe the holiday spirit of the city will get you motivated. It rarely generates this kind of mood, don't you think? That's why I live in a more closed off area."

"Yeah, uh-huh, okay. I don't even get why everyone's so happy. I'm in a miserable mood."

The girl, once again, became confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that it's really annoying how I'm all down, yet everyone else is all cheerful! It's unfair!"

"So...people can't be happy if you're unhappy?"

"Exactly."

"Yup. A real piece of work," the girl muttered softly to herself. Justin gave her a quizzical look, causing her to continue on with the conversation. "Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself. My name's Dawn."

"That's a...weird name. Are you expecting me to get you pregnant just so you can sacrifice me later?"

"Wha-? No, I'm not, but seeing how this conversation is going...maybe we could do something else?"

"No way. I just want to get home."

"Well, there's still time! In facet, there a several trains going to the same destination," Dawn informed him. "_I must make this guy happy...his negative aura is ruining the mood of everything right now_," she thought.

"Hmph. Alright then...what do you want?"

Dawn surveyed the area for a moment, looking for anything that could possibly result in some fun. Her gaze then fixated on the ice rink, full of people skating to their heart's content. That would be amusing enough.

"Uh...let's go skating!" she suggested, "You see the ice rink over there, right?"

"Oh hell no," Justin refused, "I don't want to fracture these precious cheekbones." He stroked his face with his right hand a few times.

"Come on. There's no guarantee that you'll fall, right? Your aura may radiate negative energy, but I can't say anything about how good your balance is."

"Ugh. Don't say anything about the auras again, please. And no, I will not go. I don't need to postpone another photo shoot of mine because of a few bruises or scratches."

Dawn looked at him in impatience. How bad could ice skating really be? What a sissy, she thought, though far from those exact words.

"You know, if you don't skate now, you may regret it later."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that if you refuse now, you'll possibly feel like you missed out later. What's worse: A little scratch on your arm or a painful feeling of regret?"

"Pft, the scratch, of course."

Dawn sighed heavily. Would she be defeated with this? Was making this guy enjoy himself really worth it? Apparently it was, because she attempted to reason with him once again. For someone who had been labeled as a "freaky hippie" by others throughout her life, she had a few tricks up her sleeve,

"Did you hear that small wounds can be sellers for the modeling business?" she asked him.

"Sellers...?"

"Well, many of the girls I went to school with would constantly fawn over attractive guys with blemished in magazines because they had appeared to have just gotten out of a fight. They would buy tons of papers just to-"

Before she could say another word, Justin grabbed her by the wrist. "Okay, I'll skate with you, only under this result though."

"Okay!" Dawn chirped.

The two waited in line to rent their ice skates, or really, Justin pushed his way past at least ten people who were patiently waiting, and dragged Dawn with him. A few people snapped at him with things such as "Hey! You can't do that!" or "Get in the back of the line!", in which Justin responded with "I'm a male model", thinking it would be a justifiable excuse. Dawn would just stand beside him, frowning at Justin, but not interfering with his actions. As a result, the two were taken by security, and were escorted outside.

"Great. Now are we going to get in?" Justin groaned.

"I don't exactly know. Maybe we could find something else to do?"

"What? No. I'm going to get into this ice rink like my modeling career depends on it."

"Well, if you hadn't pushed your way to the front of the line, we could have been in by now."

"That's not important. All I need is my face with a bits of purple all over it, okay?"

"I don't think we should be doing this anymore..."

Justin ignored Dawn. Instead, he grabbed her by the arm once again, and dragged her off again. Something had caught his eye, something that didn't exactly belong to him...right there in under a bench was two pairs of ice skates. It looked like it was designed for kids, mainly because of its extremely small size and the fact that a bunch of innocent stickers were glued on to it.

Dawn was unsure of it all. It wasn't right to steal, but at the same time, she didn't believe Justin would actually take the skates home with him. I mean, what use would they be of? Justin didn't seem like a particularly sporty guy, after all.

Justin made no hesitation to grab the skates. Wow, he really wanted this profit. He had massive trouble getting them on, for the already stated reason that it was a kids pair, but he eventually squeezed them on his feet. Now, all he had to do was pretend that his blood circulation wasn't being cut off entirely.

"Are you sure you want your feet to be squished like that?" Dawn asked him, "It looks awfully uncomfortable."

"I'm fine," Justin told her through clenched teeth. It was obviously not "fine". He stepped out into the ice rink, instantly losing balance and slipping. He grabbed the wall for support, but his feet still slid in the opposite direction. Dawn watched the whole scene unfold from the bench Justin found the skates underneath, her hands folded on her lap.

Justin grappled on to the wall for the next five minutes, but he knew it wouldn't get him the job done, so he released himself into the center...where he fell face first. He picked himself up quickly and wiped some ice off of his nose. He could already feel his minor injuries starting. For the next twenty minutes or so, Justin spent his time falling, falling, and falling again. It wasn't very pleasant for him physically, but if it meant the big ones like Dawn said, he couldn't give up just yet.

It was both horrifying and amusing for Dawn to watch. She didn't like to see the guy in pain, but it was a bit endearing to see him pick himself up again and again and again. It was also even a bit humorous considering that every younger child was doing perfectly fine. It was as if she watching a family-night comedy movie. She also payed mind to the background, which was delightfully lit up with red and green neon lights, to even further the Christmas mood. It was a fun sight indeed.

However, she found herself noticing something after awhile in Justin's feet. As the minutes passed by, it didn't seem like his falls were mere accidents anymore. The way his right foot would slip into the air every twenty seconds or so made it seem like something was up. Then she remembered how she manipulated him into skating in the first place, about how blemishes on attractive models can earn them more money. "_Oh, could he really be harming himself for this?_" she asked herself, "_Please Mother Nature, tell me it's not true! Please let this man have good in him!_"

Justin continued to fall. He intentionally avoided specific areas of his face that he assumed people found especially attractive, like his filled-out lips or his keen, mysterious looking eyes. The bruises he would leave with would only accent the other ares more, causing the more parts he was notorious for and the back-up parts would now become equal. It sounded like a good plan. However, after each fall, it was more and more difficult to pull himself back up. Less and less bloody was circulating in his feet as time passed. At some point, he just ended up lying there. His feet couldn't carry him any longer. "_Oh shit, now I've really injured myself_," he thought. He needed to act fast before people would become suspicious...okay, people had already become suspicious, but it's best not for him to know that.

"A...hey, a little help?" he asked in the most nonchalant way possible.

Nobody offered him a hand. By the time this had happened, he had already fallen at least forty times. He was practically seen as a lunatic by the people around him now. A few bystanders even whispered about how "All celebrities go crazy at some point".

"Wait, I think I've seen you before...you're the guy who cut in line earlier, aren't you?" another person yelled at him, "How'd you even get in here?"

A chorus of "yeah"s sounded throughout the group. Everyone ended up towering over Justin like he was some sort of freak of nature.

"Uh...can I get any help at all? I can't move."

"Seeing how many times you fell over the past half hour, maybe that's a good thing," a girl snorted.

A few more insults were thrown at the helpless Justin before Dawn decided to step in. She knew that Justin had done some...questionable things throughout the course of the hour, but she didn't want to see him get harassed like this.

There was one problem though: She didn't have any skates, which was certainly a set-back, but you know what? Dawn didn't care about that at the moment. It wasn't any more important than helping Justin. Without further thought, she trotted on to the ice, and slid toward the center, where the large crowd was.

"People! Stop! This person is in need of medical care," she announced, "Can't you see there's something wrong with his legs?"

"And his brain," yet another unnamed person chuckled.

"Well come on! Help him! All you're doing is causing someone misery. That's not good for anything! If we all just helped him and went on with our evening, the atmosphere would return to a good state, and everyone could go on with their eveNIIIIIIIING!"

Dawn had tripped. It's unclear on whether she had slipped on the ice herself or if someone else had tripped her, but she had definitely tripped, face first...

...right on to Justin's face. Dawn instantly became flustered, frantically picking herself up and blushing immensely. Justin showed less embarrassment, but it's no lie that he did feel extremely awkward.

"Heh, the two weirdos are a couple now."

"Ew, romance."

"I can't say I'm surprised something like this would happen."

These were just a few of the remarks made on that moment, but they were cut short by an order via loudspeaker.

"ATTENTION. EVERYONE MUST EXIT THE ICE RINK. IT WILL BE OPEN AGAIN FOR USE SHORTLY. THANK YOU."

And with that, everyone exited the ice rink, grumbling to themselves as they did. Still, no one bothered to help Justin, except Dawn, who tried her best to pull him out, but unfortunately, she was too weak for that. It was left to security to once again escort the two outside, and to help Justin with his shoes. It was late at this point of the day, and Justin's face was bruised, sadly not in the way he wished for it to be. It didn't help that the subway Justin had wanted to catch had long since left, along with the next one.

"So...are you okay?" Dawn asked him sheepishly.

"No. Now, I really will have to postpone the next photo shoot."

"That's a shame...," Dawn could detect Justin's aura growing more and more hostile, "Is there anything I can do to replenish some good energy in you?"

"Nope," Justin told her straightforwardly, "It will not help the fact that my face's a mess now."

"Oh come on...your face is still quite nice. I mean, my own face was up against it and all..."

"Huh?"

"Nothing," Dawn mumbled, "I seriously just want you to genuinely have a good time. All those silly falls in the ice rink were still only to achieve one thing, which was more money."

"Duh. What else would they be for?"

Dawn huffed. "Yup, still a piece of work..."

* * *

**A/N- GAH. I intended to post this much long ago, but it kept slipping my mind. And yeah, I can't write something even semi-fluffy for my life, but I guess this counts? Anyway, I'd like to dedicate this to UltimateWarriorFan4Ever! Would say Secret Santa, but you know, haha. Anyway, I hope you, along with every other reader has enjoyed this. And I also apologize for not getting more shit done here lately. I have like five different unfinished documents that I need to publish. **

**Thank you all for reading. **


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